Chennai friends, here I come!

Santosham! Makizhsi!  (Joy!  Happiness!)  I am excited to be heading to Chennai--this time for a year, taking Tamil language classes here (The Institute of Asian Studies), and staying with friends.  In a little less than 4 weeks, I'll be enjoying the summery temperatures of the Chennai "winter"; reintroducing my senses to language, traffic patterns, food, customs, music, and everyday smells and sounds that are different from here, but now will be much more familiar after having travelled/stayed in Tamil Nadu for 5 months.

(A major intersection in North/Central Chennai @ a low-traffic moment)

It will be great to reunite with friends I've already made, and to get to know people better as I get to know the native tongue better through lessons and lots of practice!  (I'm very excited to be able to say and understand more than my now limited vocabulary of words that allows me to say important things like, "Give me water (please)," and "I don't understand."

Eating a traditional South Indian meal 

(idli, pongal, and coconut chutney) 

on the traditional banana leaf.   Fun!

January 30th is the fly-out date!  Hurrah for a shorter travel time this trip!  Instead of the 39-hour trip I took previously, this time I'll be in Chennai only 21 hours after take-off from Seattle.

But... before this... a much greater joy will be welcoming one of my dearest friends from the past 16 years into my family as my sister-in-law!  On January 22nd, I get to be a bridesmaid for the second time in only 7 months (in July it was for my sister's wedding).  It has been such a blessing to be home while preparations for my brother & my friend Sarah's wedding are underway!  The next 28 days are going to FLY....  :-)  (No pun intended... maybe....)  Congratulations, Ben & Sarah (and belatedly--on this blog--to Brooke and Phil)!!  So happy to have a new brother & sister.  :-)  :-)  :-)  :-)  (Rhomba santosham!)

My sister & her bridesmaids--my soon-to-be sister-in-law is on the far left.  :-)

July 2010 Family photo--welcoming my new brother-in-law!  :-)

Happy New Year, friends!

Retry...

Vannakkam! Okay, I think I can type in English now, and explain a bit about the photos! :-) "Vannakkam" is a Tamil greeting, and you can see the Tamil script version in the title of the last post.

I am safely in India, as of Saturday afternoon here/Friday night PST. It was amazing coming back. In some ways, it felt like coming home. Currently, it is Monday morning, and I and another girl from America are sitting in an air-conditioned (!) Internet cafe that we found close by the center we're staying at.

I get to stay a few "blocks" from the beach/about a 7-minute walk. The breezes off the water are lovely--keeping the temperature and humidity very livable, and also keeping the mosquitos at bay for the most part! The people here are amazing. I have met friends from several different states in India.  They are very fun and hospitable. I'm excited to get to know them better and learn from them!

Captions for the photos below:

1)Post-security waiting area at the Delhi Indira Gandhi Airport, Domestic terminal. It was a bit cold in Delhi on Saturday--it made the news--so I was very glad I'd taken my fleece jacket with me! Right behind the two men is a Kawai electric baby grand that was playing jazzy music. Donald Duck made me smile, too--that's a "Children's Play Area This Way" sign. There were several duty-free shops here, a food court/smoking area (I didn't go up there because it looked too smoky), and even a giant-screened TV playing Cricket matches.

2) One of Kingfisher Airlines' jets, with the fun covered stairway from the tarmac. This is the airline I flew from Delhi to Chennai.

3) 43 Indian rupees--about 1 USD.

More pictures and stories to follow. I miss seeing you all, but am having a fabulous start to the trip!

வண்ணக்கம்!

Acceptance Letter!

I'm not keeping up here as well as I thought... if you would like to know more, you can e-mail me, or catch up with me on Facebook. Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!

Shannon

"Out My Chennai Window" I

A short clip mostly interesting for its sounds--birds, and a vendor calling out his ware (I think tomatoes and onions--"vangayam").  Coconut tree on the left, mango tree on the right.   I don't remember the dogs being that loud... but there were a lot of them.